Boycotts

News about Boycotts, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Jun. 30, 2015

Delegates to annual meetings of three United States churches with millions of members consider adopting resolutions promoted by Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement, global campaign to pressure Israel economically over Palestinian issue. MORE

Jun. 6, 2015

Advocates for Israel in United States are endeavoring to respond to pro-Palestinian campaign known as Boycott, Divest and Sanction, or BDS, with some states like South Carolina implementing legislation to curtail campaign; Congress is likely to vote on trade legislation that would blacklist companies that support campaign, which many American Jews see as anti-Semitic. MORE

Jun. 5, 2015

Stephane Richard, chief executive of French multinational telecommunications corporation Orange, says he would leave Israeli market if it were not for potential legal and financial penalties, setting off furor in Israel; boycott Israel movement has been growing since failed Palestinian bid to oust Israel from FIFA, soccer's global governing body. MORE

May. 10, 2015

Student government councils in dozens of American colleges have passed resolutions urging school administrations to divest from companies that many see as helping Israel mistreat Palestinians; resolutions are inspired by Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions campaign; debates are emotional, with many minorities expressing solidarity with Palestinians, and supporters of Israel, worried that debates are motivated by anti-Semitism and a questioning of legitimacy of Israel itself. MORE

Dec. 31, 2014

Korean-American community groups call for boycott of McDonald's restaurant in Flushing, Queens, where customer James Jin Kim recorded video of an employee striking him with a broomstick, after Kim complained of slow service; footage was broadcast on television, enraging Korean-American community, even though employee was arrested for assault and punished; Kim is suing for $10 million in damages. MORE

Oct. 31, 2014

SodaStream, Israeli manufacturer of home carbonation systems, plans to close its factory in occupied West Bank in 2015; firm became focal point of international movement to boycott Israeli products made there. MORE

Jun. 27, 2014

Fashion week crowds in Milan honor Brunei hotel boycott, which includes the Hotel Principe di Savoia, by turning to competing spaces to host their parties. MORE

Jun. 1, 2014

Islamic, or Shariah, laws being phased in by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah in Brunei have led to high-profile boycotts of hotels that he owns, including California's iconic Beverly Hills Hotel; full impact of the protests remain to be seen, but efforts from Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT rights group, to encourage organizations to take their business elsewhere have created wave of cancellations costing the Beverly Hills Hotel $2 million. MORE

May. 25, 2014

Fashion industry is considering boycott of Dorchester Collection hotels, which are owned by Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah; sultan's country is implementing new penal code that will include, among other things, harsh punishments for gay sex and adultery. MORE

May. 13, 2014

Groups that cancel events at hotels because of contentious issues may spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to break contracts that are often made years in advance and make new arrangements. MORE

May. 10, 2014

Hollywood is boycotting Beverly Hills Hotel since word spread of Brunei's embrace of harsh form of Islamic law, which allows stoning of gays and adulterers, by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, whose Brunei Investment Agency owns hotel as part of its Dorchester collection of properties; escalating boycott of Dorchester properties has decreased company’s revenue by about $2 million, and cancellations at Beverly Hills Hotel accounts for almost all of the dropoff. MORE

May. 6, 2014

Charities pull their fund-raisers from the Beverly Hills Hotel amid uproar over the adoption of Shariah law by the sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, whose investment group owns the property; cancellations follow moves by others to shun the hotel and other Dorchester Collection properties. MORE

Mar. 16, 2014

Chuck Klosterman The Ethicist column answers question about boycotting Woody Allen's films in the wake of sexual-abuse allegations. MORE

Feb. 2, 2014

Op-Ed article by Palestinian human rights activist Omar Barghouti contends that the Israeli government's view of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement as a strategic threat reveals its heightened anxiety at the movement's spread into the mainstream. MORE

Jan. 31, 2014

Racing Santander players make good on their threat to boycott a Copa del Rey soccer quarterfinal against Real Sociedad over unpaid wages, by refusing to play; other soccer news noted. MORE

Jan. 11, 2014

Voters in rural Thailand have begun boycotting the popular Singha beer brand because of its affiliation to the leader of antigovernment protests. MORE

Dec. 27, 2013

American Studies Assn's recent endorsement of boycott of Israeli academic institutions has led some prominent university presidents and academic leaders to issue condemnations that emphasize the importance of academic freedom. MORE

Dec. 20, 2013

David Brooks Op-Ed column contends the American Studies Association's boycott of Israel stems from a refusal to acknowledge the complexity of the horrible choices that Israel faces; warns it is a mistake to blame a nation's character when the problem is the situation it finds itself in. MORE

Dec. 17, 2013

American Studies Assn, organization of college professors, announces boycott of Israeli academic institutions to protest Israel's treatment of Palestinians; move signals that a movement to isolate and pressure Israel that is gaining ground in Europe has begun to make strides in United States. MORE

Dec. 16, 2013

Growing campaign among American professors to isolate Israel reaches a milestone when the American Studies Assn's national council is expected to reveal whether its members endorse an academic boycott of Israel to protest the country's treatment of Palestinians. MORE

Oct. 22, 2013

Grambling football players decide to end their boycott over conditions of athletic complex and uniforms; boycott forced university to forfeit a football game against Jackson State. MORE

Oct. 21, 2013

William C Rhoden Sports of The Times Column contends that decision by Grambling State football team to boycott practice and forfeit game represents escalation of players' rights movement; holds that if college players and advocacy groups like National College Players Assn truly want to show solidarity, they will unite with the Grambling players who turned words into action MORE

Sep. 8, 2013

Vodka is a boycott target over Russia's antigay law, but Stolichnaya is actually made in Latvia, nation with experience of Russian oppression; efforts to pressure Russia's Pres Vladimir V Putin into dropping measure outlawing 'homosexual propaganda' by getting Americans to dump vodka have proved fertile ground for complaints of good intentions gone awry. MORE

Aug. 21, 2013

Op-Ed article by political science professor Mark Lawrence Schrad contends that boycotting Russian vodka in protest of country's antigay legislation has potential to backfire on Russia's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community; suggests that a better approach would be to link gay equality to problems that have broader resonance in Russia, like corruption and weak rule of law. MORE

Jul. 21, 2013

Editorial criticizes planned boycott of movie Ender's Game by activist group Geeks Out, which was spurred by anti-gay views of Orson Scott Card, author of novel on which movie is based; contends planned action is less a boycott than a blacklisting, and is misguided. MORE

Jul. 13, 2013

Boycott against upcoming film Ender’s Game has suddenly gained traction online; campaign was launched to protest anti-gay views of Orson Scott Card, author of the novel that inspired the movie. MORE

May. 31, 2013

The novelist Alice Walker and the rock musician Roger Waters had called upon Alicia Keys to cancel a planned concert in Tel Aviv to protest Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians. MORE

May. 9, 2013

Stephen W Hawking, renowned University of Cambridge physicist and cosmologist, pulls out of high-profile conference to be held in Israel in support of academic boycott of country, organized by international activists to protest Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians. MORE

Apr. 3, 2012

Irish anti-austerity protesters claim victory after the government acknowledges that around 50 percent of the country's estimated 1.6 million homeowners failed to pay a new, flat-rate $133 property tax by the March 31 deadline. MORE

Mar. 28, 2012

Members of Park Slope Food Co-op in Brooklyn vote overwhelmingly against a motion that would have moved the organization closer to joining an international boycott against products made in Israel; boycott is meant to compel Israeli government to change its policies toward Palestinians, but opponents say store is no place to adjudicate the politics of the Middle East. MORE

Mar. 27, 2012

Several of New York City’s leading politicians say they oppose a boycott of Israeli products by the Park Slope Food Co-op in Brooklyn, speaking out a day before the market is expected to vote on proposal; proposed boycott is an outgrowth of an international movement that is pushing for divestment and sanctions against Israel. MORE

Mar. 24, 2012

Park Slope Food Co-Op in Brooklyn is engulfed in a debate that evokes its social and political roots--whether to boycott products from Israel to protest the Israeli government's policies toward Palestine; debate has splintered the membership, turning neighbor against neighbor and provoking threats of litigation. MORE

Mar. 4, 2012

Ginia Bellafante Big City column notes that the Park Slope Food Co-Op has been embroiled for several years in debate over whether to join the global movement known as BDS, which calls for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel until it returns all Arab land occupied in 1967; questions appropriateness of such a debate in a place whose purpose centers around produce and not politics. MORE

Feb. 14, 2012

More than 5,700 researchers have joined a boycott of Elsevier, a leading publisher of scientific journals, in a growing furor over open access to the fruits of scientific research; researchers, some of whom have pledged not to publish in the journals, issue a statement denouncing the system by which Elsevier and other journal publishers make increasing profits based on free labor of scientists. MORE

In a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia called for a return to normal relations, brushing aside Western leaders’ boycott of a Victory Day parade a day earlier.